House Seeks Establishment of Fire Fighting Quick Response Stations on Highways

By Adedayo Akinwale

The House of Representatives has called on the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Federal Fire Service (FFS) to liaise and establish Fire Fighting Stations on all federal highways to ensure prompt rescue during fire accidents on the roads.

It also called on the FRSC to increase supervision on trucks transporting petroleum products as well as other highly flammable products to avoid overloading and to ensure compliance with safety standards to prevent and reduce accidents that have the potential of resulting in explosions on the highways.

The resolutions of the House were sequel to the adoption of motion moved at the plenary yesterday by Hon. Taiwo Oluga.

Moving the motion, the lawmaker said FRSC was established with the principal objective to prevent accidents and generally ensure safety on all highways in Nigeria.

Oluga said the fire service was also established with the overall objective of extinguishing, controlling and preventing fire, saving and protecting lives and property as well as performing other humanitarian causes.

She observed that despite efforts of the federal government, accidents still occur on the highways, some of which lead to fire explosions that result in the loss of lives and property.

The lawmaker further observed that when such ghastly accidents which lead to fire explosions occur, there is often no quick response from the fire-fighting or road safety agency, as they mostly do not have fire-fighting equipment handy on the highways.

Oluga recalled that on June 22, 2021, many vehicles were burnt beyond redemption after a fuel-laden tanker burst into flames on Ogere axis of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, leading to loss

of lives and property and causing terrible traffic gridlock due to lack of equipment to put out the fire and evacuate the debris from the federal highway.

She further recalled that on October 26, 2019, a national daily reported that over 153 Nigerians died as a result of fuel tanker accidents from January 2019 to October 2019.

The House, therefore, resolved that: “The FRSC and the Federal Fire Service should liaise and establish Fire Fighting Stations on all federal highways to ensure prompt rescue during fire accidents on the roads.”

It mandated the Committees on FRSC and Interior to ensure compliance.